William Grimshaw – Living the Christian Life

For most people, the Yorkshire town of Haworth is associated with the Bronte family. However, as this little book shows, there was a mighty man of God called William Grimshaw who also left an indelible imprint on that town and its surrounding communities.

Paul and Faith Cook have put together a brief account of Grimshaw’s life and work, together with some pithy quotes from his unpublished writings as the main content of the book.

Grimshaw was saved in 1742 through reading a book on justification by faith. From that point he devoted himself to the preaching of the gospel. As the writer says, ‘He devoted his physical and mental powers to spreading the gospel in many different parts of the north of England. He rarely preached less than twenty times a week and on occasions preached as many as thirty times’. He finally succumbed to a typhus fever epidemic in April 1763, some of his last words being, ‘I shall soon be at home, for ever with the Lord’.

This is an interesting little book. It is a testimony to a man of tireless energy used of God to bring many to faith in Christ and to transform communities by the power of the gospel. But it is also a collection of material that gives us a glimpse of Grimshaw’s great love for God, encouraging us to live the Christian life in practice. Who would not warm to such thoughts as, ‘Never did a soul go to heaven, I find, but his heart went there first. He first lives there in heart and affection, and then in person’? It is well worth reading!